The story of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was highly praised this year and rewarded with several awards. The game’s lead writer did not even orient herself to creating a story for a game.
How strong is the story of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? The RPG Clair Obscur not only won at the Game Awards this year, but also received further awards that recognize the game’s story: In addition to the Game Award for Best Narrative, it also received the Golden Joystick for Best Storytelling.
The responsible lead writer of the game, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, explains (via GamesRadar+), that it could be due to her unique approach, which is rather atypical for a game and even sounds counterproductive at first: Because she didn’t try to write a story for an RPG at all.
Here you can see the trailer for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33:
“I didn’t think of it as writing an RPG”
How did the team approach the development of the content? Svedberg-Yen explains that the team faced some challenges, as many contributors to Expedition 33 previously had no background in game development. However, this also turned out to be their strength, as they could not rely on previous approaches but brought their own perspectives that occur outside of gaming.
The success of Svedberg-Yen’s story proves this, written by a writer who, as she herself admits, “doesn’t really play video games” (via GamesRadar+).
What did the writer orient herself by instead, if not by other games? Since Svedberg-Yen had rather little experience with video games, she found her inspiration for writing in other media such as TV series or books. She explains that she loves science fiction and epic fantasy stories that harbor particularly large, immersive worlds and cultures, which have influenced the worldbuilding for Expedition 33.
In the actual writing process, she focused less on creating a story for an RPG and saw her work as an entirely different approach: “I felt like I was writing an HBO drama” (source: GamesRadar+).
Clair Obscur had a lot of success this year at various award shows, but one of their victories was rescinded because they communicated information incorrectly. The incorrect statement ultimately led to them losing their title as Best “Debut Game” at the Indie Game Awards: Expedition 33 wins the Game Awards but loses an already won award due to the use of AI
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